The seamless garment of Salvation

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This sermon is to give an accurate picture of what God has done for the sinner.

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As we, before we get into the Scripture this morning, if we could, let's go to the
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Lord in prayer. Lord, this morning
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I just want to come to You to say thank You. Thank You this morning,
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God, for this privilege and this honor that we have to gather together in one place as Your church, as Your people.
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And dear God, I can't speak on behalf of anybody else.
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I can only speak on what I know to be true about me. And Lord, I am amazed at how that in Your Word, how that You have brought all things together to bring us a clear picture and to give us as Your people,
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God, as the redeemed of God, a clear understanding of who
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You are and what You have done. Lord, I don't ever want to take that for granted.
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God, I don't ever want to assume that it's just something that's going to be and then approach it as something that may be small or little of no value.
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But God, Your Word is of the greatest value unto us because it's in Your Word, God, that You show us and You teach us who
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You are. I just want to ask You this morning, God, as I've already been asking
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You this week, God, to help us to rightly divide
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Your Word. Dear God, help us to proclaim Your Word with as little of us that is necessary,
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God. Be all in all in this place. Speak to hearts and minds in this place as only
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You can for this time You have given us. And help us,
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God, to always and to ever be grateful for Your Word. For it's in Jesus' name
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I pray. Amen and amen. As you have turned to 1
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John 5, I want to ask you to hold your finger there and turn back over to the
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Gospel of John. In chapter 19, Gospel of John in the 19th chapter.
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And as is generally the case, we'll be reading a lot of Scripture, but I want you to know that the
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Gospel of John is the same writer as the first epistle of John.
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It is the Apostle John. And I don't believe that it's any coincidence that the truths that stand out in the first epistle of John are the same truths that stand out in John's Gospel.
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John did not change what he wrote about Jesus any, though there was probably,
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I guess, about 60 years between the Gospel of John and the epistle of John being written.
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According to history, as far as we know. Again, it's important as in class this morning we were talking with Xavier and trying to instill in him and in Cyrus what may seem like a pointless piece of information, but how necessary and how important it is that the
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Word of God as we have the Bible was written by 40 different authors over a course of 1 ,500 or so years, maybe more.
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And yet, the central truth throughout the whole of Scripture does not waver and it does not change.
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The prophecies that were given concerning Christ were fulfilled to the
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T. Jesus, when He came, said, I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law.
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And it is just incredible to me as I began to consider and as we set out on going through this first epistle of John how that the truth is just so there every time you look back.
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You can go backwards or you can go forwards as far as you can go to the end of the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ and the truth is always the same.
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And so here in the book of John's Gospel, John chapter 19 if you have it, turn to John 19 verse 16 and we're going to read down through 24 before we read in 1
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John because I think what that we'll read here in John's Gospel just kind of ties together and pulls everything all up in one kind of one cohesive ball of information that we can take away and say that we know of a truth that Jesus Christ is the
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Son of God. So John chapter 19 in verse 16. This is what the
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Word of God says. The Word of God says, Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified.
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It's speaking of the crucifixion of Jesus. They took Jesus away and led him away and bearing his cross.
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He went forth into a place called the skull which is in the Hebrew called
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Golgotha where they crucified him and two other with him on either side one and Jesus in the midst and Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross.
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And the writing was this Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews. This title then read many of the
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Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was not to the city and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin.
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Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate right not the king of the
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Jews, but that he said I am the king of the Jews. Pilate answered what
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I've written. I have written. Then the soldiers when they had crucified
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Jesus took his garments and made four parts to every soldier apart and also his coat.
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Now the coat was without a seam woven from the top throughout.
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They said therefore among themselves let us not rend it, but cast lots for it whose it shall be.
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That the scripture might be fulfilled which saith they parted my vesture or they parted my raiment among them and for my vesture they did cast lots.
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These things therefore the soldiers did. But in verse 23 here
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I want you to notice the statement Then the soldiers when they had crucified
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Jesus took his garments and made four parts to every soldier apart and also his coat.
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Now the coat was without seam woven from the top throughout.
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The first probably two to three months of this year we spent trying to teach and preach to you the importance of the authority of the word of God.
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Not only the authority of God's word but the sufficiency of God's word and how that God's word is for the
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Christian the only rule of faith and practice. That there is no new revelation outside of the word of God.
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This is what the scriptures teach. And for the past I guess now probably four months
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I would say maybe I could be off on my time frame but for the past four months or so we have been going verse by verse through this first epistle of John.
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And in this first epistle of John as we mentioned originally to you there were a great many doctrines that were brought to light from the word of God.
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The doctrine of God himself. The nature and the character of God. The doctrine of sin.
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Again you can't read through it without you hear these things and we see these things having been preserved for us through the
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Holy Spirit. We see the doctrine of sin, the doctrine of salvation which primarily has been the focus.
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And within that doctrine of salvation we've looked at the doctrine of regeneration, the doctrine of justification by faith.
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We've seen all these things and all that goes into these great doctrines. The doctrines of sanctification.
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How that God by giving the Holy Spirit to the
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Christian, to the believer that the Holy Spirit lives in us always to point us to the
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Father. And always to show us where we need to be correct in our lives.
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What we need to do to line up with God. And salvation as a whole if you want to begin and you want to write something down this morning salvation is of the
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Lord. There is absolutely nothing according to the word of God that you or I as men, women, boys or girls can contribute or assist
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God in the work of salvation. The work of salvation is of the
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Lord. I've mentioned several times over these past months how the
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Apostle John takes and he weaves these truths of God together and how he goes from the incarnation at the first chapter of the first epistle the incarnation of Jesus Christ which brings about to light the deity of Jesus Christ and then he goes to the fact of sin and how we stand in need of salvation from sin and in chapter 2 how that John with no uncertain terms sets forth the statement that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins.
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And he goes back and forth weaving this intricate pattern this intricate and I'm going to call it the seamless garment of salvation so that we might have a full and an accurate picture of what
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God has done for the sinner. Because the truth is that there are only two types of men and women in this world the saved and the lost, the regenerate and the unregenerate man and a man is not going to be regenerated in and of himself he's going to be regenerated because God has set his love on a man or a woman to do that work in us that which we are unable to do in and of ourselves.
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And I wanted to share this as we enter upon these verses in 1 John in reading that in the gospel of John how the soldiers at the cross of Jesus took his garments just the standard garments and they divided them, they tore them apart but when it came to the coat that he had it was a seamless garment.
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It was not a pattern like some of you who may know how to sew understand and recognize and are familiar with where you'll take one side of a pattern and sew it to another side of a pattern but this garment of Jesus, this coat of Jesus was woven from the top down.
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There was no way to add or to put anything else into it. It was one.
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The scriptures teach us that the Lord our God is one.
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Here O Israel, matter of fact was the first commandment the Lord our
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God is one. And so I wanted to share this, I wrote this down the apostle
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John in this epistle has taken the needle of divine inspiration coupled with the scarlet thread of redemption and has woven together this seamless garment of salvation.
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It is simple and elegant, it is human and divine the great doctrines of faith coming together all in one in these last few verses of this first epistle of John.
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And again these doctrines are intended so that when they are preached and so that when they are taught to you as a
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Christian if you are a Christian today so that you understand and so that you know that in salvation it is all of God.
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In no way, shape, form or fashion is it us.
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There are many over the past thousands of years since Jesus Christ that we'll try to add and we'll try to implicate man somewhat in salvation so that man can at least feel like that he has cooperated with God in salvation.
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But I've got news for everybody here today. God does not need your help.
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He does not need my help. God can take a rock and preach the gospel just the same as he uses this dummy right here.
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But I am privileged to be able to stand and to proclaim what thus says the
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Word of God. And I am thankful for that. And again I do not take that lightly.
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And it may seem as though there is no point to continue in teaching these great doctrines.
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It may seem like there is no need to continue to refresh your minds on a weekly basis just how important it is that we do not stray from the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Charles Spurgeon said concerning these great doctrines of faith, these doctrines give the death blow to all self -sufficiency.
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There are those who want to arouse man's activity in salvation. Spurgeon said what we want to do is to kill it once and for all.
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To show him that he is lost and ruined and that his activities are not now at all equal to the work of conversion.
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That he must look upward. They may seek to make the man stand up but we seek to bring him down and make him feel that there he lies in the hand of God.
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And that his business is to submit himself to God and cry aloud,
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Lord save or else I will perish.
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We hold Spurgeon said that man is never so near grace as when he begins to feel that he can do nothing at all.
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I don't know about you but I remember the day I got saved. I remember the day like it was yesterday in March 1987 at that youth conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Some of you may already know what I'm saying but guess what? There's new folks here that ain't never heard my testimony.
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And by the way, I don't care if you've heard it a thousand times, it's still good to me.
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It's still good to me. And that way up high sitting in that balcony with a group of strangers that I've never been out with before.
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They chose to love and to care for me and to take me with them to this conference.
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But even greater than that was what was proclaimed at this conference.
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It was nothing else but the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And what the message was titled was that God ought not to be your co -pilot as the bumper sticker seems to think is a good thing.
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God is my co -pilot but that God ought not to be your co -pilot but that he needs to be in the driver's seat of your life.
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And the preacher proclaimed in no uncertain words that if I was in control of my life that I would crash and that I would burn and they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And as is the case in many places within Christianity there was an invitation given.
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However, because I was so far up in that balcony and there were so many teenagers and adults in this stadium that I could not get down to the altar where the preacher was giving an invitation for people to come.
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But the preacher, I'm thankful for this, knows that the drawing power was not in the words of his own mind or of his own mouth but the drawing power unto salvation was the work of the
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Holy Spirit that could get to me wherever I was. And I was not able to get down to the front.
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I was not able to get to that altar. But my friend, I want you to know that God found me just where I was.
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And in that moment of regeneration when God not only brought me to life but God gave me faith to believe in him.
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Grace that saved my soul. I recognized in that instant and in that moment that the life that I had lived that there was nothing that I could reach in my pocket and pull out.
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There was nothing that I could put in my hands that I could offer up unto the
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Lord and say, Lord, if there's any reason that you ought to love me, here it is.
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There was nothing because it was in that moment that I understood and that I knew that my sins had separated me from a holy
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God and that the only price, the only payment that had been made for my sins was that the work of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary becoming the propitiation for my sins so that I might be justified by faith in him.
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And it was that day that I got saved. Now I did not know these doctrines as I'm explaining them and have been explaining them to you for this past year.
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I did not know them in that detail at that moment. But having understood that's what took place that makes the doctrines of grace so much more wonderful.
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That is why that we stress to you that you understand and that you know these doctrines so that you can appreciate what
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Jesus Christ has done. So that we are not like spoiled children who have everything handed to them and think that we deserve it.
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But that we recognize the price that was paid for our sins. And it was a price that we could not pay.
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And that is why Spurgeon said that he wants to bring man down so that man can understand that he has nowhere to go but unto the
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Lord. So in these doctrines, and we haven't read 1
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John 5 verse 18. This is what in summation the Apostle John brings everything just to kind of fullness concerning what he has said in this epistle.
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He said this, We know, that is certainty. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.
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But he that is begotten of God keeps himself and that wicked one touches him not.
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And we know that we are of God. That's certainty. And the whole world lieth in wickedness.
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And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know
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Him that is true and we are in Him that is true even in His Son Jesus Christ.
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This is the true God and eternal life.
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Little children, keep yourselves from idols. And then he says, Amen.
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Now he didn't say it like that, I know. Everybody thinks that it may be a more solemn,
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Amen. But I'm just telling you, I can't do like everybody else.
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I can't preach like some of the great preachers of our day. I can't preach like the great preachers of past.
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I can only preach as I am. I don't know how to say, Amen. I know how to say,
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Amen. And that's how it makes me feel. It's something that is real.
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It's something that I know. And that was the point of this epistle so that the
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Christian can have assurance of salvation based upon the evidence that is given to us in the
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Word of God. Not based upon our feelings. Not based upon our emotions, though that's how sometimes it's worked out.
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But based upon God and His Word. So in verse 18, just to give you the overview.
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We know whosoever is born of God sinneth not. That born of God was the term that the apostles spoke much of there in the third chapter.
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Speaking of being born again, Jesus told Nicodemus, You must be born again.
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You must be regenerated. You must be made new. And remembering and understanding and knowing that within all of these doctrines that it is
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God who is working. That it is God who is making the accomplishment in the sinner.
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Not the sinner doing anything of ourselves. So regeneration is that first great doctrine.
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Whosoever is born of God sins not. We have the doctrine in the mention of sin.
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So we have the understanding that there is sin. And the scriptures teach us that sin is the transgression of God's law.
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And the Bible says the soul that sins it shall die. The Bible says the wages of sin is death.
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But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our
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Lord. So regeneration in simple terms. Regeneration is
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God giving the unregenerate sinner life.
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Regeneration is God giving the unregenerate sinner life. Why is this important?
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And why is this a fundamental doctrine that every Christian needs to know and every
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Christian needs to understand? If you would turn to the book of Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2.
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Beginning in verse 1. The apostle Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus.
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And this is what he says. And you has he quickened.
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That means to be made alive. And you has he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
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A dead man can make no response. A dead man can contribute nothing to anything or any part of his life.
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Especially unto salvation. So it takes the regenerating work of the
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Holy Spirit of God in the life of an individual for that believer, for that individual to be able to believe in God.
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Would you agree? Amen. You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
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Wherein, Paul said, in times past you walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, speaking of the sin nature, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
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Even as others, he's speaking both to the Jew and to the Gentile.
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When you see this term all used throughout the New Testament primarily, it's important for you to understand and know, when all is mentioned, typically the context is in light of both the
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Jew and the Gentile. How that God brings salvation both to the
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Jew and to the Gentile. Verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us, made us alive, together with Christ, for by grace are you saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
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For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
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God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
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So there in the book of Ephesians, in very clear, very forthright, simple direct statements
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Paul makes, and we are taught that before a man is saved, that he is dead in his sins.
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And we understand, and that's not some kind of a secret veiled message that the
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Apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is trying to communicate. Dead means dead.
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He's saying we were unable, in and of ourselves, to contribute anything unto salvation.
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That is one of the primary doctrines of grace. So the primary doctrine of grace is the total, one of the primary doctrines is the total inability of man.
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The total depravity of man. That we have nothing to contribute, that we have nothing to offer, that we're unable to aid or assist
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God in any way concerning salvation. John Gill, in the 1700s, said in his commentary on 1
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John, A man is partaker of the divine nature. He has Christ formed, and every grace of the
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Spirit implanted in him, among which faith in Christ is a considerable one.
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And such a one, in consequence, is openly a child and heir of God.
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Wherefore, to be born of God is an instance of great grace, and a high honor and privilege, and of the greatest moment and importance.
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Regeneration is not owing to the power and will of man, but to the abundant mercy and good will of God.
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I have, I know I'm reading a lot to you as well, as far as these quotes go, but these are so important.
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There was a great, one of the great men of God down through the years, George Whitefield, and I was reading recently concerning his testimony of salvation, and I want to just read you this, so that you have a picture before we move on to the doctrine of justification by faith that happens right with regeneration.
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But before I do that, I want to read you this, so that you can hear just another testimony of a godly man who understood and who recognized that salvation was all of the
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Lord, and that he had nothing to offer the Lord. In a short time, Whitefield said, he let me have another book, a friend of him gave him the book, and the book was entitled
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The Life of God in the Soul of Man. Whitefield said, and though I had fasted, watched, and prayed, and received the sacraments so long, yet I never knew what true religion was till God sent me that excellent treatise by the hands of my never to be forgotten friend.
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At my first reading, I wondered what the author meant by saying that some falsely placed religion in going to church, doing hurt to no one, being constant in the duties of the closet, and now and then reaching out their hands to give alms to their poor neighbors.
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Alas, thought I, if this be not religion, what is? God soon showed me, for in reading a few lines further, that true religion was a union of the soul with God, and Christ formed within us.
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A ray of divine light was instantaneously darted in upon my soul, and from that moment, but not till then, did
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I know that I must be a new creature. This completely undermined Whitefield's beliefs, and the writer says here, the biographer says, every religious duty that he had been doing up to this point was without value before.
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He resolved to do everything he could to become a new creature. He worked so hard at it that he nearly killed himself.
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He began to live by the rigid rules of what was called the holy club, accounting for every moment of the day.
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It did him no good. He felt a load of sin pressing upon him, and nothing took it away.
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He went to extremes, not eating, not speaking. At one point, it was now suggested,
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Whitefield said, it was suggested to me that Jesus Christ was amongst the wild beasts when he was tempted, and that he should follow his example.
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He would go outside and pray in the cold, even laying on the ground for hours. His health began to deteriorate, and one of his hands was turning black.
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His tutor began to worry about him, and there were fears he would die. After seven weeks of sickness, he found he had a thirst, which drinking did not allay.
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He remembered that when Christ was near an end of his sufferings, he said, I thirst.
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He threw himself onto his bed and cried to God, I thirst,
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I thirst. The first time, he had looked outside of himself for help.
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His load lifted, and he found himself full of joy. The spirit of mourning was taken from me,
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Whitefield said, and I knew what it was truly to rejoice in God my savior, and for some time could not avoid singing psalms wherever I was.
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He was a new creature in Christ. And you know what, I believe that's the truth.
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I believe that as a Christian, sometimes you can't help but sing. Sometimes you can't help but rejoice.
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Sometimes you can't help but mourn. But either way, it's because God is greater than who we are.
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He is greater than us. So that's what George Whitefield's testimony was concerning salvation.
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The fact that he knew that there was no deed that he could do that would bring salvation.
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There was nothing that he would contribute, that the only way salvation would come was that he became totally helpless before God.
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And when he cried like Christ cried, I thirst, he was reaching out and saying,
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God, I need something that I cannot provide in and of myself. My soul is empty.
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My soul has a longing. My soul has a hunger that cannot be satisfied by any other but you, oh
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Lord. And that's why I believe the psalmist cried as he cried in that 23rd
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Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
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He leads me beside the still waters. Praise the Lord. Praise the
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Lord. Regeneration is the work of God. Regeneration is God giving the unregenerate sinner life.
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Faith follows regeneration. By grace are you saved according to here in Ephesians through faith.
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Faith follows regeneration. When the life in the soul, the life of a man is quickened by God, a man can then look up.
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The psalmist said in another place, I will look under the hills from whence cometh my help.
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A dead man cannot look. A dead man cannot look down. A dead man cannot look up. And a dead man cannot look around.
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But a man who has been given life by the Spirit of God is able to.
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And when that happens, when that takes place, the great doctrine of justification by faith occurs in the life of an individual.
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I asked April to sing that song this morning, Not Guilty, because in that song, whether you knew it or not, is the doctrine of justification by faith.
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The songs that we sing ought to be full of scriptural truth.
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And that song was. The scriptural truth of justification by faith is spoken of throughout the
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Old and the New Testament. So what is faith? Faith is
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God justifying the sinner. We are given faith as a gift of God so that we might be justified by believing on Jesus Christ, which of itself is the work of God in us, because we've been made alive by Him.
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Faith is God justifying the sinner. This was the primary doctrine that was brought back to light, which was not a new doctrine, but it was just something that had been covered up by the traditions of the church throughout the years.
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The great doctrine of justification by faith was refocused on, if you would have it, within the
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Reformation. That man was not made right in the sight of God by his actions, but because of what
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Jesus accomplished. The book of Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 and verse 16.
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Paul is writing to the Roman Christians, and this is what he said. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the
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Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.
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As it is written, the just shall live by faith. Martin Luther said this concerning his realization of this great doctrine of justification by faith.
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That expression, Luther said, that expression, the righteousness of God in these verses, he said, was like a thunderbolt in my heart.
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He said, I hated Paul with all my heart when I read that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel.
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Only afterward, when I saw the words that followed, namely that it's written that the righteous shall live by faith, and in addition, he said, he consulted
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Augustine, I was cheered when I learned that the righteousness of God is his mercy, and that he makes us righteous through it.
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A remedy was offered to me in my affliction. John MacArthur said in his book,
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The Gospel According to Jesus, justification may be defined as an act of God, whereby he imputes to a believing sinner the full and perfect righteousness of Christ, forgiving the sinner of all unrighteousness, declaring him or her perfectly righteous in God's sight, thus delivering the believer from all condemnation.
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And all this is in these last verses of this first epistle of John.
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It is all there. Adoption, the next doctrine that is mentioned, him who has begotten of God.
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We shared with you several verses of Scripture a few weeks ago concerning this. But in that moment of regeneration, when
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God gives life to the sinner, when God justifies the sinner by giving him faith to believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ, at that same moment, we are made the children of God.
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We are adopted into his family. We have the same rights and privileges as a natural -born child in the natural world.
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If a child is adopted into a family, that child has exactly the same rights and privileges as the natural -born child of the parents.
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The last doctrine mentioned and the last one we're really going to talk about this morning is sanctification.
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Sanctification. So regeneration is God giving the sinner life.
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Justification is God giving the sinner faith. Adoption is
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God making the regenerate sinner his child. And last of all, sanctification, sanctification is
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God's making the regenerated sinner into his likeness by, on a daily basis, and I've just broke this down in plain terms, by on a daily basis chipping away those things that are not in accordance with the holiness of God.
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That's what the work of the Holy Spirit is in the life of the believer. It is not something that is brought to light and focused so much attention on today.
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It's not to make us do great and fantastic things, to make us, even though there's times where I feel like I'm so full of the
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Holy Spirit, and I've done it, I'll run around the room. I'll shout, I'll do whatever, but that is not the purpose that God gave the
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Holy Spirit to us. God gave the Holy Spirit to us so that we may know
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Him, so that we may know His mind, so that we may know His will, and so that we might live accordingly.
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Regeneration happens like that. Justification happens just like that. We're declared innocent before a holy
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God based upon what Jesus Christ did at the cross, raising from the dead and ascending to the
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Father. Adoption happens just like that. But sanctification is a process.
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It's a process of time. Is there anybody that would raise their hand today?
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Okay, how about this? Let's give testimony for a minute. How many of you would say, I know that according, based upon the evidence that God has given me, just in the book of 1
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John, that I am saved by His grace? I would say, I know I am saved by God's grace.
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I know, based upon His Word. How many of you would say, having given the testimony that you are saved, would say,
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I have lived perfect since I got saved? Cue the crickets.
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Love you sister, but I'll say no. Not a one of us.
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But how many of you would say, since you have been saved, you know that the Holy Spirit has convicted you of sin and shown you when you go astray and drawn you back to the
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Father? That is the work of sanctification in the life of the believer.
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These doctrines of our faith are most important. And they ought never to be laid aside.
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They ought never to be put on the back burner. But they ought always to be set forth and made evident and clear.
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These doctrines are wonderful. These doctrines of grace. And as we move forward in time, the
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Lord carries His coming. As we mentioned to you this entire year, we're going to be looking specifically about the doctrines of grace.
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What we spoke to you about is kind of like pulling some of the meat off the bones of the doctrines of grace.
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But the doctrines of grace primarily are these. If you want to have this for future reference. The doctrines of grace that the church ought to be focused on are these.
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That we are totally depraved. Number two.
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That God has unconditionally elected those whom
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He calls and draws unto salvation. Meaning this. That God's saving of a man is not based on anything that God saw man do.
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But based upon God's decision to save that man. Period. The third doctrine of grace is that Christ made a definite atonement for us.
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Historically the term has been limited. But I think a better word would be definite.
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That the death Christ died was intentional.
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And it was specific. How do I know this? Some would say, how do you know that you're saved?
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Or how can you know that you're one of God's elect? Because I'm saved. Because I know that the work
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He did was effectual. And it was effective because He saved me. So a definite atonement.
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The fourth doctrine of grace is that when
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God draws a man unto Himself. When God gives, when God regenerates the dead man, the dead soul.
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When God regenerates a man that you cannot say, no
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God I'd rather not be made alive. Think about that.
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Think about that. That the grace of God is irresistible.
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And last of all, the fifth doctrine of grace is perseverance of the saints.
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That a regenerated, born again, justified, adopted, being sanctified child of God can never.
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You know what never means, Sue Ann? You ain't got a chance.
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Can never fall away from the faith. Fully and finally. Jesus said all that the
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Father has given me. I have lost none. That's good.
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Grace and salvation is dependent upon God. Upon His omniscience.
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Upon His omnipresence. Upon His, the pleasure, according to the pleasure of His good will.
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And not based upon anything. I can't change what God has done.
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I cannot change what God has decreed. I don't know what all
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God has decreed. And what all God has done. But He does.
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And He's got it under control. But it is important as we move along through our lives as Christians.
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That you know these things. And that these things take root in you.
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So that when you are faced with statements that contradict the faith of Jesus Christ.
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You will be able to give an answer. It's called an apologetic that you'll be able to give.
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I don't know why it's called apologetics. It sounds like you're saying you're sorry for something. But so that you can give an explanation.
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It's what apologetics is. It's an explanation. So that you can give an explanation of why you believe what you believe.
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And that explanation, good news, you don't have to go all over the world. And have a library of 10 ,000 books to find it.
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If you've got the divine library. 39 old, 27 new, 66 total.
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Every answer to the questions concerning the great doctrines of God. Are going to be right here within the pages of His book.
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And we are privileged where we live to have access to this. To have multiple copies many times.
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But I suggest that you find you a good copy of the Bible. And that you break it in.
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That you get used to it. So when you go to look for information. And you've got your own copy.
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And I'm just telling you this. Because this is just me. I can take my Bible here.
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And know exactly where to find something. Grab your Bible Chris. I'm like a ball of high leaves.
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I'm lost. Just because it's positionally on the page. Put in a different spot.
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But if you will just get you a Bible. And if you will study that Bible. If you will break that Bible in.
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I will guarantee you something. You will number one. Know God better.
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And you will number two. Be content with God more so than you were without reading it.
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Read your Bible. Love one another. Philip Henry the great
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Puritan theologian. If you would stand with us today. Philip Henry the great
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Puritan theologian of the 1600's. And we read this at baptizing here a while back. I want to read it to you again.
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You ought rightly to commit to memory the Word of God. But there are some creeds and some confessions.
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That would do us good as Christians. To set to our minds. And to put to our hearts.
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And to allow come out of our mouths. And this is one. This is what Philip Henry said. I take
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God the Father to be my chief good. And my highest end. I take God the
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Son to be my Prince and my Savior. I take God the Holy Ghost to be my sanctifier, teacher, guide and comforter.
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I take the Word of God to be my rule in all my actions. And the people of God to be my people in all conditions.
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I do likewise devote and dedicate unto the Lord my whole self. All I am.
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All I have. And all I can do. And this do I deliberately. Sincerely.
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Freely. And forever. Heavenly Father God I thank you today again for this great privilege that you have given us to be here.
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I thank you for the great honor God of being able to open up your Word. And to read your
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Word. I thank you God for the men who have lived down through the years.
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Who have stood faithful and true to your Word. That we have their testimonies.
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And their statements to look back on as well. And God our prayer today is that for this church.
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For this people. God that you would take and create in them more so than that which is now.
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A hunger and a thirst for righteousness God. Satisfy the longing soul with yourself.
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Help us God to everything we do. The words we speak and the lives we live.
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To bring honor and to bring glory unto your name. And Lord in closing
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I want to say this. I just want to say them to you God. Because you have allowed us to learn these.
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These great principles of the Reformation God. Sola Scriptura.
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That all of our faith concerning you and knowledge of you.
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And our rule of practice of life as believers. Are based solely upon your
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Word alone. And that by grace through faith in Christ alone we are saved.
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And God if you will just give us enough sense
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God. To hold to these things. God we can continue dear
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God to uphold that last Reformation principle. The principle of soli deo gloria.
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That glory to God would go. Or that glory alone would go to you in all things.
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For it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. God bless you.
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We'll be here tonight at 6 o 'clock. We look forward to seeing you. Birthdays.